Telecommunications is no longer simply a utility sector. It is the operating system of Canada’s digital economy. The cabling, towers and switches built by workers across the country now function as critical infrastructure, safeguarding Canada’s digital borders and economy.
“Technical work is transforming as boundaries between telecom, IT, security and digital services dissolve,” says Michael Phillips, President of USW Local 1944, representing some 4,000 telecom and technical workers across Canada.
“Workers are being asked to adapt faster and carry more responsibility and risk, even as companies restructure, outsource and rebrand themselves as ‘techcos,’ ” Phillips adds.
Local 1944 recognized this shift and made a deliberate choice to evolve with the industry by ramping up union organizing to secure its members and other workers a central place in its future.
The union was tested last year when Rogers transferred hundreds of wireless technicians – Local 1944 members – to the multinational Ericsson, where the workers were shifted to non-union, contractor status.
Local 1944 responded with an organizing campaign that saw more than 200 technicians sign union cards and secure federal certification last November.
A renewed organizing program, featuring the website TheTechUnion.ca, has branded Local 1944 as the union of choice for workers across the industry who need better working conditions and security.
“Our union faced the truth: our work had not changed, but our vulnerability had. Union organizing is more important than ever to ensure that workers in our industry don’t face that uncertainty alone,” says Corey Mandryk, Local 1944’s lead organizer.
That message is resonating among workers in IT, logistics, manufacturing and software across Canada, Mandryk says.
“This is not an anomaly, but a broader shift. Workers across the tech sector are realizing that unionization is possible and long overdue.”
Local 1944 became “The Tech Union” as a declaration of purpose: to organize the workforce that builds and sustains Canada’s digital borders. That workforce now has a union they can call home.
This article appears in the Summer 2026 issue of USW@Work magazine.
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